Garden, Chicks and a missing cat

Ugh, once again no pics. For some reason I cannot get blogger to upload any of my pictures. Going to have to investigate as to why. Hopefully next time there will be pictures to share.

Little Inger is doing wonderfully with her instant family of 12 Americana chicks and as of today her children increased to 6 Frizzle Bantam chicks. Making it a grand total of 18 chicks for her to raise! And she is loving every moment of it! Have to say that the Americana chicks have some serious ravenous appetites! There are now 2 pans of food as well as two smaller containers for their treats ( veggies, a bit of fruit, cooked oatmeal, etc).  I swear when they hear me coming those chicks start chirping up a storm! They know I am coming with treats!

Thanks to the rototiller there are now two garden spots getting ready to be planted. A few more times of rototilling and it will be ready. I am soooo excited!! Real honest to goodness tasty tomatoes. Variety lettuce. Lemon cucumbers. Peppers. Corn. And on and on.

Goat, one of our older outside cats has been missing for three days now. I have searched and searched for her, but sadly haven't found her. Sigh.

The other day as I was walking out towards the pasture I look up to see the people who own the mare and new foal coming out of another driveway leading the mare and letting the filly run all over the place. No big deal right? Um, they were leading the mare on the road. Which is a scenic highway and very, very busy!! The guy was was leading the mare and his wife is lolly gagging way behind not paying any attention. Next thing I know a car came speeding around the corner, the filly was all over the road and thankfully the driver saw what was going on and stopped. The wife finally starts waving her arms around to get the drivers attention. Um, driver already stopped. After a few more minutes the husband gets the mare and filly back into the pasture, the driver of the car said something not so nice to the wife and all I could do was shake my head.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with my best friend in the historic town of Jacksonville. 

And speaking of the historic town of Jacksonville, I just read that the town is expecting over 60,000 tourists this season!! And the season will be starting about next month. Being as there is only the scenic highway to get to the nearest city I foresee some exciting and possibly frustrating times going through Jacksonville. 

Until next time............

A steal of a deal and chicks

For some reason pics won't upload. So, once again no pictures. Sorry.

Gosh the past few days have been busy! Got more blackberry bushes cleared out. For those of you who don't have to deal with out of control blackberry bushes, well, consider yourself lucky! They are awful! The plant, not the berry. Anyway, while putting all the vines into a burn pile I looked up and saw a young doe standing there watching me. I don't know what it is but I love deer. Such peaceful, serene, quiet creatures. 

The garden hasn't been planted yet but now it is just a matter of waiting for the weather to clear up enough to rototill. And speaking of rototillers, there was a steal of a deal on one listed on Craigslist. I'm talking a steal of a deal! The guy who was selling it said the wheels wouldn't turn and that the engine never shut off. Well, for the price I couldn't pass it up so bought it ( hoping it would be a somewhat easy fix), brought it home and my brother came over and got it running like new in less than half an hour! Yay!!!! Doing a happy dance! I own my very own rototiller!!

The Americauana chicks finally came in yesterday. All 13 of them! After picking and catching my chicks at the feed store and ready to pay I noticed a sickly chick. Knowing no one would want that one, I traded one of my healthy chicks for the sickly one. The gal asked me why I did that. Well, why not. The little chick had been through enough and survival wasn't likely. The least I could do was not let it die alone and uncared for.  The chick made it home, but shortly after passed away. I named her Phoebe, said a prayer and buried her where the other hens that passed away are buried.

Little Inger, my absolute fav chicken has been sitting on dud eggs for awhile now. So, knowing she loves to be a mama, I picked her up, put her into the trough set up for the chicks to see what she would do. The look on those chicks faces really was hilarious. They have not seen a mama chicken before so they just didn't know what to do. After a few minutes Little Inger started clucking to them and before long all 12 chicks surrounded her. Little Inger is happy, the chicks are happy and I know this sounds a bit selfish, but it is a bit easier for me.

This afternoon I am watching Grace for a few hours while her mother goes to lunch with a friend. Thankfully she is such a joy to be around so am looking forward to some 'us' time.

Hope everyone is doing well. Yet again I must catch up with all of you. I sure have missed ya'!

Until next time.....................

More New Additions

The numbers of eggs hatching is increasing. There are now 6 black chicks and 3 yellow ones. A total of 9! And Bonnie is still sitting on 5 more eggs!! It was hard to take a picture of all the chicks now that they are running everywhere in all directions. You can see the first ones born are now beginning to feather out. Even the three yellow babies are starting to feather out.

This one was born yesterday. There are chicks of different sizes and ages. Chicks, chicks everywhere! And I love it!!!!!

Meet Doug. He belonged to my middle daughter who could no longer keep him. So, as you can see, he came here. His name was Danger, but honestly, didn't like the name, so changed it to Doug.

As soon as Doug arrived he fit right in. None of that scared, freak out attitude. In fact, he fit in so quickly that before I knew it he had fallen asleep. Awww, how cute.

I guess he was so relaxed, this is the position he fell asleep in. Yes, you are seeing right. The pillow is upright. Doug is snoozing hanging over the top of it.

There is one thing that Doug needs to stop. And that is waking me up at 4 in the morning wanting to be loved on. You know, the cat face in your face with of course the loud purring in the ear. Hopefully in a few days he will stop with the too early rising. As it is I am up at 5, don't have any intention of getting up any earlier than that!

Until next time...............................

This n that

Lately I seem to have lost some of my sense of humor. Okay, a lot of my sense of humor. Before, not much would put me into a good, hardy laugh. You know the kind, the one with tears streaming down your face and your side hurting. See this ordinary looking hat? Well, somewhat ordinary looking. This hat had me laughing pretty darn good.

Until you press the botton under the bill and voila', there are two small lightbulbs that light up! Last night I had to see how much light there was to see by ,so off outside into the dark I went. My goodness there was a lot of light! Surprised the heck out of me. You should have seen the cats. They didn't know wether to run and hide or come investigate. As you can see in the picture Ozzy is investigating.

This morning there was another surprise ( sorry no pic of the new baby yet). Yup, another White Silky baby. To date there are three black ones and two White Silkies. Here are two of the older babies inder Little Inger keeping warm.

Every now and then my camera takes a really good pic. Just precious.

These are just two of the cats ( Miss Kitty on the left and Goat on the right) hanging around the coop fascinated by the new babies. Okay, let's call it what it is. They want to have a meal with those babies!

Maybe tomorrow there will be another surprise.

Until next time..........................

Two day update

It's been a couple of days since I wrote. Sorry, no pics in today's blog. Camera is either being temperamental or I need to buy more batteries!

So far there are still only the three baby chicks. Bonnie is sitting on the rest of the eggs while Little Inger is teaching the young ones how to eat and scratch and do chicken things.

The other hens are rather upset now since the door to the pen is closed all the time. Which means I have to keep a real close eye on them and open the door for them to go in and lay their wonderful, yummy eggs. Then back out to open the door to let them back out.

This afternoon Little Inger took the babies out of the house and into the enclosed area. It was so cute to watch them scratch the whole time they were peeping and Little Inger talking to them.

But, as I feared, the outside cats have noticed the peeping! Mr. Worm has been hanging around the pen with 'that look' in his eye. Even though I have talked to him that the babies are not for him to eat, for some odd silly reason he ignores me. Hmmmm, go figure! So, without him knowing it is me doing it, rocks are tossed at him to scare him away. He runs off with a very confused look in his face. But sure enough later on there he is hanging around the pen again.

Rose ( our 12 year old Boxer) is not feeling well today. I have a suspicion she may have had another small stroke. I have been sitting with her the better part of today which seems to make her feel better. The way I figure it is, whatever I can't get to today, will be waiting for me tomorrow to get done.


Speaking of dogs, in previous posts I talked about our neighbors Little Dog who is over here all the time. Over the past several days I haven't seen him. Now this is ridiculous on my part since he isn't even our dog, but I got worried. I went out and looked in the ditches along the road, walked the back pasture, looked in the barn, but couldn't find him. Well, maybe the neighbors are just keeping him home now. Okay, that's fine. Earlier this afternoon when I went out to get the mail, who was standing by the front door?! Yup, Persistence aka Little Dog! Now I feel better knowing he is okay.

Hopefully tomorrow the camera will be working and will post pics of the babies.


Until next time.....................